Increased distractibility to own name in psychotic patients with ideas and delusions of reference

This study examined the relationship between ideas and delusions of reference (I/DOR) and attentional shift to a self-referential stimulus (subject's own name, SON).

Psychotic patients with I/DOR (n = 20) and without I/DOR (n = 17) matched for age and education were tested for attentional shift to SON embedded in a background voice clip presented binaurally when engaging in an attention-demanding task (computerised Stroop task). Reaction time and accuracy in Stroop tasks with and without embedded SON were measured. I/DOR severity, other positive symptoms, negative symptoms and cognitive performance were assessed.

There was significant interaction between conditions (Stroop tasks with and without SON) and groups (patients with and without I/DOR) on reaction time (F(1,32) = 4.22, p = .05). Simple main effects showed a significant mean difference in reaction time between conditions in patients with I/DOR (107.7 milliseconds, p = .001) but not in those without (5.8 milliseconds, p = .86). Within-subject difference in reaction time correlated with I/DOR severity scores (r = .33-.52, range; p < .05) and remained significant after controlling for other clinical and cognitive variables.

The significant interaction and simple main effect suggest that I/DOR are associated with a heightened attentional shift to SON. The SON paradigm can potentially be developed into a neurocognitive parameter of I/DOR. However, the lack of non-self stimuli in the SON paradigm limits the interpretation on whether I/DOR are associated with general or specific distractibility related to self-referential information and further studies are warranted.